My 1st Mod - St. Cuthbert Enhancements

This thread will summarize my efforts at Modding TOEE and present samples of my work so that they can be critiqued.

First, I will keep my mods simple. In line with this I have decided to focus my efforts on improving a player's interactions with the Temple of St. Cuthbert.

My plan is for these enhancements to include;

1. Dialog that allows a Cleric or Paladin of Saint Cuthbert to secure lodging in the lower level of the Temple of St. Cuthbert. (s/b Simple) as long as they are of good reputation. Example: If a Cleric or Paladin of St. Cuthbert asks for a room to rest and heal it will be granted. This option will be not be available to other classes or characters of other deities.

Why not? It's a temple of St. Cuthbert, not a Temple of Pelor nor a Temple of WeeJas.

2. Dialog that allows the player to share the information they have learned about the TOEE with the priests of St. Cuthbert. (s/b Simple). In this way the PCs can learn more about the background of the Moathouse and the TOEE.

3. Dialog that causes the priests of St. Cuthburt to attack any that enter the temple wearing a cloak from the TOEE. A player skilled in Diplomacy or Bluff can talk their way out of this predicament. If 3 PCs are slain the priests will offer the players a last chance to surrender. My thought is to have the priest in the main chapel call for help from Terjon and the acolyte before engaging in combat.

4. The priests of the temple will not aid a party that contains a fallen paladin or a cleric of Saint Cuthbert that has transgressed (i.e. no healing, no rest, etc.).

5. Nor will they aid a cleric that worships an evil deity (i.e. Hextor, etc.).

6. Placing an collections chest in the temple, that a skilled rogue can attempt to plunder. Of course, if you are caught the priests of the temple will not be welcoming. The trick here will be to place it in a manner that forces the rogue to use his hide in shadows skill to suceed and to add a penalty that penalizes only the PC attempting to rob the chest, not the rest of the party.

7. A quest from the Temple of St. Cuthbert to retrieve a tome stolen (see 9 below) from the chapel's treasure room. My intial thoughts are that this quest will lead the players to a Fence in Nulb (who is willing to purchase stolen goods from any PC) and then to its buyer in Verbobonc.

8. Having the Temple of Saint Cuthbert Reinforced by temple guards from Verbobonc if the PCs achieve a reputation as the butcher of Hommlet. The Guards would be outside the temple during the day accompanied by Terjon & a mage from Verbobonc. At night these guards would be inside the temple. The strength of the guard would vary based on the average level of the PCs or the quests they have completed.

9. Have the HP of St. Cuthbert appear in the Keep with Rufus and Burne every nth day. Just to make life a little unpredictable for those Butchers of Hommlet.

10. If the PCs achieve a reputation as Butchers of Hommlet have a patrol of adventuring bounty hunters appear in Hommlet every nth day to ambush any PCs approaching the Welcome Wrench - Just to make things interesting and unpredictable.

Ideally, I would have two different encounters - one with a group that runs away after killing one PC, and another with a group that attempts to slay all the PCs, but runs away after losing a few of their party (adventurers aren't stupid, they run away to fight another day).

Questioning by the PCs would reveal that a bounty has been placed on their heads by the Temple of St. Cuthbert at the Adventurers Guild in Verbobonc.

11. Add a quest for Evil PCs (that they receive from the Fence in Nulb) to steal a holy tome from the Temple of St. Cuthbert. This would be done LAST as I have no skills in graphical design and am thinking that a secret door in the lower level of Cuthberts temple leads to a hallway of traps and riddles that must be traversed.

The quest would start with the fence in Nulb (a new NPC) that has a job for the PCs for a client - secure an ancient tome locked within the Temple of St. Cuthbert in Hommlet. As to how to do it that the PCs decision. They might want to do some research on the Temple, find the plans and perhaps a lead to the Gnome that designed the Treasure room.

Using GATHER INFORMATIONthe PCs could find the name of the gnome that designed the treasure room and if they locate him (he resides in Verbobonc), then gather information (using DIPLOMACY or ITIMIDATE) on the nature of the traps. If they kill him they may find (SEARCH check) a scroll with riddles that hold the clue to accessing the tome and bypassing the traps.

Ideally a Rogue would sneak past the guards to the treasure room hallway (using Hide in Shadows) or use his bluff skill to send the guards elsewhere (The High Priest wants to see you now). You don't want to kill the guard as that would turn the Temple Priests against the PCs. Then moving down the long hallway in a straight line would trigger the traps, while moving down the hallway in a pattern would not. At the end of the hallway lies a room with a trap that is activated by sound, moving silently would allow the rogue to avoid this trap. Another trap might be a heat metal spell that would penalize any PC wearing metal armor. The goal is to make the theft of this holy book really interesting and doable with a bit of strategy.

That's it. My goals for my first attempt at modding TOEE. Now I need to turn my attention to studying Ted's tutorials.

 

@ShiningTed - Understood,. I will look into using spot or listen checks to trigger the appropiate trap - perhaps a statue like in the 2nd level of the TOEE Dungeon - one that you can attempt to move silently past and another that you need to try to hide in shadows.

@Gaer - A 2nd temple of St. Cuthbert in Verbobonc? I have not thought through how this could be used. Perhaps, Terjon could be recalled to this temple and a high level PC cleric of St. Cuthbert given control over the temple in Hommlet, or the Temple could send additional priests to Hommlet depending on the story state. Or what if the PCs are summoned to meet the High Priest of Verbobonc - a 18th level priest accompanied. Perhaps the PCs are engaged to wage war against the Temples of St. Cuthbert and its followers by a followerer if Iuz or Lloth. Or if Terjon is slain the temple of St. Cuthbert in Verbobonc sends a replacement priest.

Question - where is the deity mes file? I looked in the rules folder and all other folders and did not find it (note - I have the latest Mod pak installed). I am looking for the Deity number for St. Cuthbert. Perhaps I need to re-installed TOEE to a new directory to find it?

 

I am not too sure about #3... it is way too agressive... they should start with talking before any fighting occurs... a diplomacy check after having killed several PCs is ridiculous. And you should be able to convince them you are not evil even without diplomacy... maybe by doing a quest for them.
Plus it assumes terjon knows the various symbols of the cults involved.
Plus, it should not occur at ALL if you have the reputation for clearning the moathouse OR a cleric or a paldin of a good god who didn't fall (they literally have an aura of their alignment)

#5 requires that the clerics have a detect evil spell, which allows them to detect the evil aura of clerics of evil gods (an official class ability)... The duration on detect evil is too short and it takes a precious spell slot, however it is at will for a paladin. So having either a detect evil device at the entrance OR a paladin who detects evil whenever someone enters will explain that pretty well.
on this regards, evil artifacts ping on detect evil. The item has two evil magic items, the skull and the figurine (at least they tell you they are evil)... so these should be taken into account there too.

Keep in mind though, that this makes its an issue as to why they haven't killed the two merchants in who are temple spies.

other then that though I like most of the plans you had. very nice.

 

If you are interesting in more ideas...
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/consecrate.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/desecrate.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/hallow.htm
http://www.d20srd.org/srd/spells/unhallow.htm

1. allow a cleric to hallow/unhallow their home in nulb to their god. Would be cool if someone could make graphics for actual alters for the gods and druids but you said graphics aren't your thing so...

2. the church of st cuthbert should be hallowed and maybe consecrated and contain an alter. It should be possible for an evil party to desecrate their alter (cutting off its connection to st. cuthbert) after killing everyone there for extra XP... (and then maybe set the whole thing on fire for good measure?)... again, might be too much work.

3. a good party should be able to use consecrate offensively on all those evil alters you come across. (AFAIK there is one in larath's room, the 4 elemental temples, etc).

4. What I said before about detect evil requiring a casting of the spell? Well, if the church is hallowed with the "detect evil" spell as a carried spell available to all followers of st cuthbert in it then that explains it.
This does mean though that any player who is a follower of st cuthbert needs to get detect evil active for them while they are inside the church.